Our Story
by ryuzaki4
Summary: Akuroku. This is our story.


_"This is the last time that I get to kiss you, Roxas..."_

The man that changed my life happened upon me while I was still in college. We had no classes together; however, 'fate had called us together'. He was a nice person, a bit cocky, perhaps, but his intentions and morals were good. I had no clue that my life would be altered dramatically after meeting him, but I'm almost glad that it did. This man that I'm talking about is dead. Our meeting happened exactly five years ago in front of my Literature class. I had dropped my things, and he had helped me pick them up. He even walked me to my next class, and spoke to me about the town.

He said his name was Axel.

He had been living in this town his whole life and was extremely familiar with everything. When I asked him about some details of the town, he declined answering my questions and, instead, insisted he take me on a tour of the town. Basically, he was asking me out on a date.

"I-I'm not sure if we should," Was my foolish response. He looked a bit hurt at the rejection, "I mean, we've only just met, and.."

"Then I'll take you on a tour of the town," Axel bounced back at the rejection, smiling a prefectly crooked smile at me, "We won't call it a date. It'll be a nice outing that two new friends are taking." I could laugh at his persistence. On my leave, I nodded and told him to meet me at the coffee house near the library at eight. He seemed giddy as I turned away from him to enter my class. I'm not going to lie or miss the fact that I was so incredibly excited to be going on a date with an incredibly handsome man. I also can't deny the fact that I'm a boy as well.

Axel was earlier than I was. I had arrived twenty minutes earlier than either of us were expected to show. I was hoping that he would feel bad, overwhelmed, and not want to see me again; instead, Axel was the one to beat me to it.

"Silly, I came here an hour early," He said with a smile, letting me take his arm as we headed off into the center of the town, "I didn't want you waiting on me. That'd be rude on my part."

"So, you decided to make me the rude one?" I had asked, looking up at him, trying to be angry. He only laughed. He used to always say my angry face looked like I smelt bad cheese.

"No. I wanted to let you know that, if we did date, you were dating a gentleman." This made me blush, but, also, kept me angry.

The first place that Axel took me to was the shopping center. It was a large square decorated with bright Holiday lights and a large Christmas tree in the middle. Axel insisted that we take a picture in front of the tree, but I wouldn't let him. I didn't want him to have a memento of this day. To him, it might mean that we were dating. He ushered me around the outlet, taking me into different stores and offering to buy me several things. Again, I declined his friendly gestures and didn't let him spend his money.

"I'm telling you that this isn't a date," I hissed as we walked around a book store. Axel made a face and turned to put a book back. That was when I made my escape. I don't know why, but I wanted to push him away. Leaving, to me, was my way of telling him I wasn't interested whereas, in reality, I was. So I wandered around the store, dodging him whenever I saw a flicker of red at my periferal. When the store was closing, I made towards the exit and found Axel again.

"What're you doing here?" Was what I asked, surprised and frustrated that he was still waiting for me, despite the fact I was dodging him the entire rest of the night.

"I couldn't find you in the store," He said, holding his arm out for me to take again, "So I decided that, instead of wandering around in the store and wasting my time looking for you, I'd wait outside of the store. You were bound to come out sooner or later." Angered, I sent a hard slap to his face and yelled at him, screaming that I wasn't interested in dating him.

"I'm not interested in dating you, either," He retaliated. That hurt me more than I had thought. I was attracted to Axel, honestly, but I didn't want him around me. He made me feel precious: like I was worth protecting and wanting, and I didn't like it. He made me feel fragile, above all other things. In silence and hurt, I took Axel's arm again and let him lead me wherever.

"You're cruel to me and I've only just met you," He said, taking me to a small bridge, "I'm only trying to show you my kindness and, in return, you slap me and try to get rid of me in the store. Why?"

"Because I like you," Was my answer. It was the only thing that had even crossed my mind when he asked. I knew that I was being weak - saying something like that - but I didn't care. I was tired, and it was too late for any public to see us. Axel seemed to think that this was funny, and he laughed.

"Why be cruel to the person that you like?" He asked, leaning against the rail of the bridge, "I'd think that people would generally be nice to the person that they like, in attempts to pull them emotionally closer."

"Well, I'm not like other people," I answered, looking at him and leaning against the rail as well. He turned to me and smiled.

"I know that."

After that, Axel and I were dating regularly. We were never parted from each other. Our close relationship continued for four more months. I was so glad that I had found somone like Axel. He was a wonderful person that loved everything about me: my laugh, my smile, my hair, my scent. In return, I loved everything about him: his smile, his laugh, his cocky attitude, his scent, his voice. I thought that Axel was going to be the one that I would spend the rest of my life with, happily knowing that the person that loved me, as much as I did him, was the one that I would grow old and die with.

But life is cruel.

It took me two years to graduate after Axel had, but I was glad that we both were free from school, and able to spend more time together. But that wasn't what others had intended. Axel got a job as a technician, and I was to be a writer. I had moved in with him after nineteen months of dating him, so I was always home for him. I would cook his dinner when he came home, always glad to see him. Axel, however, would never eat my dinner. He was too tired from work to do anything, anymore. His routine seemed only to be work, eat, sleep, and nothing more. Something was destroying him. Our relationship began to die, and I was saddened by this. To me, it seemed our relationship was budding. I had thought that nothing would pull us apart, that the world would rejoice in our happiness, and reward us with a wonderful life. Of course, this was the dream of a child. I was only nineteen back then. How would I know anything about the world and its cruelties about love?

I was twenty-one when I left. Axel had began to drink heavily, and he came home drunk; That was also the night that I decided to confront him about his hours. I told him how I was depressed that he hardly ever came home, and how I just wanted to spend more time with him. I don't know why, but it angered him somehow.

"All you do is sit on your ass!" Axel screamed. He threw one of the dinner plates that I had made at me. It struck my foot, and I collapsed. When I began to cry, he only yelled at me, telling me to shut up and that I was only good for sex. I began to shake, trying not to make noise as I cried. I was melancholy, depressed. How could Axel, the once nurturing and loving, become this monster? Axel was furious, suddenly.

"I'm leaving." I said as I stood. I headed to our room to grab my things, hoping that he would come and stop me, but he only sat at the table, staring forward with a tight jaw. I gathered my things and closed my suitcase, waiting several minutes before going through our bedroom door. There was Axel, head on his fist, staring at me with his acid green, bloodshot eyes. His stare made me cry. I wanted to ask him why he wasn't stopping me, why he was letting me leave him, but he was drunk and I knew that there would be no way of getting through to him. My answer would only be coming from the dark part of his mind that was clouded with alcohol.

"Hurry up and leave," He said, stare never breaking mine, "I'm tired of looking at your face. You're ugly when you cry."

So I left.

I received a call from him the next week, apologizing to me and saying that he had just been fired and the way that he had dealt with the situation was not smart at all on his part. I was speechless the entire time, unsure of what to make of this. It could have been a lie, but it could have been the truth. I told Axel that if it were to happen again, then he would never get another chance. I had to lay it down that I was serious in leaving him, but I knew that I would fall back to him, crawling, and hug his legs. I would be the one to beg him to come home when he was the one that would do me wrong.

"I promise never to hurt you again," Axel's voice was sincere, cracking as he spoke. It made me wonder if he cried as much as I had in the one week apart. I continued to tell him that he was an asshole when we made love that night, but he only kissed me and told me that he loved me.

"I don't want you to ever hurt me again," I told him afterwards. He merely smiled and kissed my forehead, muttering sweet words into my ear that, eventually, put me to sleep. I awoke that next morning to find a present. This, too, made me weep. Upon Axel's pillow was a ring, a diamond sitting peacefully at the top. Beside the ring rested a small note that only held a heart. I must have muttered yes a billion times to no one as I slid it on my finger. I stood and went to the kitchen and found Axel, standing in front of the table. When he saw me, I was crying again, so he embraced me.

"To spend the rest of my life with you," Axel muttered, kissing away my tears, "Would be the greatest joy that anything in this life could bring." That was what the both of us ever wished for.

Our wedding was beautiful, but what amazed my eyes on that day was how happy Axel looked. His eyes never tore off of me, his hand never left mine, and his smile never faded. I was so glad that I was one step closer to being with him for the rest of my life. After our marriage, everything seemed to take a turn for the better: Axel got another job that paid well, he was home more often, and I sold my first book. I was able to cook for him everyday, asking him how his day was, or yawning a good morning. I never once came to realize how precious the time was. While we sat in silence yawning, reading the paper, or watching television, I never once thought of telling him how much he meant to me or telling him that I loved him. Oh, and with every fiber of my being.

There was one day, however, when I got to tell him how much he meant to me, and really show it: Valentine's Day. I was glad when this particular day came around because it meant that I could make him happy doing the slightest thing. I awoke early on the third year of our life as a married couple and made him breakfast. He told me that I was the greatest chef in the world, and that he was always happy to eat my food. I could only smile as he ate, the largest, goofiest grin on his face as he inhaled the baccon, nearly choking on the strips of meat. Axel left for work and I began executing my plan. While he was away, I began to prepare our dinner, cleaned the house, and freshened our bed up. I was eager upon waiting for his arrival. He was late, but that didn't seem to put a damper on things at all.

"Welcome home," I smiled, embracing him in a tight hug and giving him a kiss as passionate as the first one that we had shared, just not as akward. (Our first kiss was in an uncomfortable position, and it involved the both of us playing Twister.)Axel hummed out as I pulled the dinner onto the table. Rather than eating across the table from his as I usually did, I took a seat next to him, talking to him about anything and everything, watching him enjoy the food that I had made for him. When he was finished eating, he kissed me and thanked me for the food, saying that anything made by me was a delight.

"When you say that, I sometimes get the feeling that you don't mean it," I laughed. Axel took my hand.

"I mean everything compliment - every word of joy, love, affection - that I tell you," He kissed my hand and my heart fluttered, "I would never tell a word that would scar your heart, that would make you doubt me, that would make you feel pain. I wish for our life together to be happy, and let it come as slowly as possible so that our time together is lived to the fullest."

"Axel, you mean the world to me," My words seemed a bit corny compared to his, "I'd give my soul, body, and my life all to you. I want you to know that you come first in my life and that you make me so, _**so **_happy that I feel like...like I could die from it."

"No dying," Axel whispered before he kissed me. We made love that night, too. I could feel Axel's emotions expressed with everything that he did: in all his touches, kisses, thrusts. Every move he made was directed towards me and for me, and with so much care and delicacy that I began to believe that I was the most fragile thing in the entire world. And, to him, I was.

But when something so beautiful emurges, the dark must take it away.

I first knew that something was wrong when Axel had become ill for several weeks. He insisted that he go to work and I, like a fool, let him leave me. He seemed fine after a month or so, but he was still coughing, and he began fainting at random times. My worry began to rise, but when I questioned him, he merely told me it was nothing, kissed me, and told me that he loved me. It only made me worry more. I knew that Axel was getting sick, but I wasn't sure how far he had gone into the illness. A year went by, and I became fed up with Axel's shiftiness. While he was gone, I went to his doctor, asking him what was wrong with Axel. The doctor only told me that Axel insisted that he not tell me, and this angered me. Why would Axel keep secrets from me? What could he be hiding? And then I knew what the cause of it all was: Axel was going to leave me. Forever. I was furious. He had to let me know these things. He couldn't keep something so important away from me. He couldn't _**be**_ away from me.

He was breaking his promise.

I confronted Axel that night, gently at first, but when he continued to deny it, I began to yell at him. He shook his head countless times, telling me to lower my voice, telling me I hadn't need to worry, telling me he was going to get better, telling me that he loved me. I grew angry and told him to tell me that he was dying to make the news official for me.

"I'm dying," He said, granting me my wish. The shock of it all made me weep. Hearing the words fall from his mouth was something that I couldnt bear. My knees buckled and I found myself on the floor, body shuddering and tears leaking from my eyes. He embraced me and I begged him not to leave, begged him to tell me he was lying, but he had told me he promised never to lie.

"There's no life without you," I told him, "It's an empty shell. Nothing could replace you." He kissed me, passionately. I tried not to break the kiss, tried to make it linger as long as I could possibly make it. When he pulled away, his hands carressed my face, rubbing over it as though he were trying to memorize everything about me like a blind man does to new companions. His pale hands took mine in such a soft grip that I felt I were to shatter the bones in his fingers were I to squeeze.

"This is the last time that I get to kiss you, Roxas," I shook my head. It was too soon. The goodbye was too sudden. He hadn't given me anytime to redeem my anger, redeem the time that had been lost between the two of us. "You have to live on. I know that I've broken my promise, and for that I'm sorry. I can't physically be with you for the rest of your life."

"Stop saying things like that," I begged, kissing his eyes, "We'll make it better. We can fix you. We'll take you to the doctor and-" But he interrupted me.

"I've asked the doctor to try all that he can, but he said there's nothing that he can do," He said, "I've taken medication, you've seen me. I even had experimental tests, but nothing has worked.." I don't know how he was able to conjure up a smile through all of this. Yet, this smile was different than the rest. It was the ghost of the smile of the lively man that I had spent, not even the beginning, of my life with. It was visible that Axel was broken as much as I was at the news. I was crying to the verge where I couldn't cry anymore, "I'm glad that I got to spend the rest of my life with you and no one but you. You, who's made my life complete and had me live it to its fullest."

"But there's so much we haven't done together," I tried. Axel shook his head.

"I won't be here when you wake up tomorrow," He said, a tear finally coming down his face, "I won't see your smiling face, hear your wonderful voice, eat your delicious food, kiss your sweet lips. What I think that I'll miss the most is just being with you. I wish that I could have had more silent moments with you. I liked sitting with you in my arms and doing nothing but telling you how much you mean to me." I scoffed.

"Silly," I ran a hand around his face, "You can still do that." I climbed into his lap and he put his arms around me, embracing me in a hug that was tighter than any hug he'd given me before.

"You mean the world to me, Roxas," He muttered into my ear. He was falling asleep. "I love you, Roxas." He closed his eyes.

"No, no, Axel, stay awake. You have to stay awake with me." He kissed my forehead.

"I love you, Roxas. You mean the world to me." He repeated that to me, rocking back and forth.

"Stay awake, Axel," I begged. "Stay with me for as long as you can. Don't sleep yet."

"Goodnight, Roxas. I love you. You mean the world to me." I shook my head countless times as he stopped rocking, as his body grew incredibly cold, and as he stopped breathing. I felt dead. He no longer moved around me, and his warmth was gone from me. I shook him several times, muttering quiet sounds to get him to open his eyes again, but he never moved.

"Axel. Axel wake up." I pleaded, kissing him. Still he didn't stir. I could only make weeping sounds since I had already cried all the water out of me. What did bring the tears to my eyes was that he was smiling. He was smiling, even to the very end of everything. I sometimes wish that I had woken up with him gone, but I'm glad that he spent his last moments telling me what he did. I sat in his arms crying for a long time before moving out of him. It took a lot of will power not to lie next to him and die myself, but he told me to continue living. And I always did what Axel told me to.

It snowed outside for the remainder of the night. Axel loved the snow.

**If you're wondering how Axel knew that he was going to die, he didn't. He was just accepting the fact that he had to move on and then, eventually, passed. Voila.**

**-ryuzaki4**


End file.
